FILE - Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis attends a meeting at the State Department, March 25, 2024, in Washington. The State Department has set up an eight-person team known as the "firm" to provide help to countries cut off from Chinese trade. The team emerged after Washington stepped in to help Lithuania when the northern European country found its cargo shipments to and from China stranded two years ago during a feud over Taiwan. Landsbergis said the aim of Chinese economic pressure "is to crush the victims by forcing reversal and public renunciation of its policies." (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)